Save or Destroy
by DinoMaster316
Summary: I remember it like it was yesterday. It's been five years. Five long, hard years. For me at least. For the rest of the village, life goes on. It all happened so fast. Too fast. No one had a chance to speak up. Not that they would have if they could. That hour, he made good his escape. If I had known my future, I would have joined him. *OC is Gustav*


**Save or Destroy**

**Prologue**

I remember it like it was yesterday. The enraged screams of the Nightmare. The sharp whistle of lightning and death. The so-called "traitor" being served his punishment. It all happened so fast. Too fast. No one had a chance to speak up. Not that they would have if they could. That hour, he made good his escape. If I had known my future, I would have joined him.

It's been five years. Five long, hard years. For me at least. For the rest of the village, life goes on. Since his banishment, there has been less destruction. People seem to be relieved. Very few were actually affected. Of those few, I believe that it was actually his father that was hurt the most. Others didn't see it as much, but I did. Almost every day I would see his eyes take on a far off look. It would happen as he was heading home or going to the blacksmith's. Sometimes I wonder if the chief could go back and change how he handled it, would he? Funny, being on the sidelines helps you see things more clearly. Maybe that's how he discovered what was and what wasn't.

The blacksmith himself was another one whom was much affected. He'd gotten quieter over the years and rarely told his loud and preposterous stories. And no one heard him sing.

There was one group that I thought would be more effected than they were. The small group of five that was in the same generation as the "traitor". Truth was, they seemed hardly effected at all.

The twins still caused havoc. Fishlegs was still a book-worm, though mostly kept it to himself nowadays. Snotlout was still as loud and as boastful as ever. Talking about how he was to be the next chief. _As if._ That was still up for debate since Stoick was still looking for someone to pass it on to. Even though Snotlout _is_ the next in line, he seriously needs to grow up. Most of the village had bets on the Hofferson girl. I would too, she's brave, smart, a good warrior, and a leader, except that the way she leads. It's with respect, yes, but how she gets that respect is what bugs me. Through fear. Only one person I know of didn't cower before her and that was the "traitor" himself. _He_ stood up to her, but with weapons made from _compassion_ and _kindness_. Not what Vikings are best known for. She didn't understand it, why this runt, this _weakling_, wasn't afraid. And, like a true Viking, what she didn't understand, she became hostile to.

True Vikings are stubborn and that's why no one talks about _him_. It's also why no one talks about their feelings on the dragon raids. No, they haven't gotten any more intense, or any more ferocious, or any more frequent. No, it's worse. They _don't stop_. Took three hundred years, but it seems like people are finally understanding that we cannot simply drive them away. Every attempt to find the dragon's nest has failed.

I see four ways this ends. One, we somehow, miraculously, against all the odds, find the nest (the same one that has eluded us for three hundred years) and then destroy it. Not to mention, that we have no idea what this place it like or how many dragons reside there or what kind of dragons reside there. For all we know, it could be a giant tar pit with a hundred eighteen-legged, one eyed, sixty horned, bird-winged, ale-eaters that spit boulders! So, I think that the likelihood for this happening is low.

The second and third options are very similar. Either we die and they win or we move somewhere else and they win. Right now, at the rate we're going, this seems the most likely.

The last option is one that I am headed up to discuss with Gothi right now. And it might be our only salvation.

At first, when he left, I was like every other villager. I was glad he was gone. Besides, I had more important things to worry about. Like getting my mom to stop hating me. But as I tried to impress her with feats of daring, I just managed to get in more trouble. People started calling me "Hiccup the Second" or "Useless #2". That was when I started to see things differently. How _he_ saw them. I found that the charm of being a Viking was losing its gilded covering. Now I wanted to be what _he_ was.

My name is Gustav. And this is the story of how I became a Dragon Rider.


End file.
